97'^.7L6^.  Jayne,   Dr,   WUiiam 

Lincoln's  Birthday,  I907, 
Personal  Reminiscences  of 
Abraham  Li  nco! n 


LINCOLN  ROOM 

UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
LIBRARY 


MEMORIAL 

the  Class  of  1901 

founded  by 

HARLAN  HOYT  HORNER 

and 

HENRIETTA  CALHOUN  HORNER 


/ 


£tnroltiB  Itrtljiag,  IBUZ 


of 


Ig  Sr.  lltUtam   Jagtt? 


Lincoln's  Birthday,   1907. 


Personal  Reminiscences 


OB* 


Abraham  Lincoln 


AN   ADDRESS 

BY 

DR.   WILLIAM  JAYNE. 


Delivered  before  the 

Springfield  Chapter 

of  ttie 


Daughters  of  the  American  Revolution, 
February     12,      1907, 


at 


The  Lincoln  Home. 


I  do  not  purpose  in  my  remarks  today  to  proceed 
into  any  extended  relation  of  the  justly  celebrated 
political  debate  between  Mr.  Lincoln  and  Mr.  Douglas 
in  1858,  or  concerning  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration 
of  the  Federal  Government  from  1861  to  1865,  because 
both  are  known  to  every  intelligent  and  well  informed 
person  in  our  whole  country,  and  more  especially,  as 
the  great  debate  and  the  transactions  of  the  period  of 
the  civil  war  is  an  open  book,  with  the  contents  of 
which  you  all  are  familiar. 

I  purpose  to  relate  facts  bearing  upon  his  early 
days  and  incidents  of  his  life,  which  are  personally 
known  to  me;  incidents  which  may  seem  small  in 
themselves,  but  yet  serve  to  show  and  illustrate  the 
habits,  traits  of  disposition  and  character,  the  heart 
and  head,  the  humor  and  melancholy,  in  a  word,  the 
peculiar  and  varied  moods  in  all  affairs,  great  or  small, 
Ijrivate  or  public,  of  this  pure,  kind,  gentle,  decided, 
and  steadfast  man. 

He  was  sensitive  and  conscientious  at  all  times  and 
in  every  relation  of  life,  and  never  in  youth  or  man- 
hood did  he  knowingly  do  wrong  to  any  one. 

More  than  forty  years  have  passed  since  his  tragic 
death ;  seventy  years  are  past  and  gone  since  he  bade 
farewell  to  New  Salem  and  the  friends  of  his  early 
manhood  and  settled  in  Springfield  to  commence  the 
practice  of  law  with  John  T.  Stuart,  his  colleague  in 
the  Illinois  Legislature  of  1836.  Probably  there  is 
not  a  man  or  woman  living  today  who  was  of  adult 


age  when  Mr.  Lincoln  left  Salem.  Before  many  years 
have  come  and  gone  the  last  person  who  has  taken 
Mr.  Lincoln  by  the  hand  and  looked  into  that  kind, 
familiar  face  will  have  passed  from  earth. 

So  it  is  well  that  those  who  knew  him  should  gather 
up  facts,  great  and  small,  honestly  related  without 
prejudice  or  partiality.  Let  us,  in  narrating  events 
and  the  story  of  his  life,  cling  close  to  truth  and  the 
man,  then  those  who  come  after  us  will  know  the  real 
man — the  true  Lincoln. 

Let  me  repeat,  if  the  story  of  his  life  is  truthfully 
and  courageously  told — nothing  colored  or  suppressed ; 
nothing  false  either  written  or  suggested — the  coming 
generation  will  see  and  feel  the  presence  of  the  living 
man. 

Let  us  not  be  over  sensitive  about  his  origin  and 
ancestry.  If  his  birth  was  humble  and  his  extraction 
was  from  the  ordinary  class  of  poor  laboring  people, 
he  knew  the  severe  struggles,  the  plain  living  and 
self-denial,  which  is  a  priceless  discipline  to  a  man  of 
ambition,  determined  to  gain  place  and  power,  to  up- 
lift the  race  and  beneiit  his  country  and  mankind. 

Mr.  Lincoln  was  ambitious — a  laudable  ambition. 
He  once  said  to  his  closest  friend,  Joshua  Speed,  that 
he  did  not  wish  to  die  until  the  world  was  better  for 
his  having  lived. 

I  think  we  shall  all  agree  that  his  was  a  beautiful, 
blameless  and  beneficent  life. 

Compare  his  life  with  that  of  Napoleon  or  Bismarck. 
No  remembrance  of  harshness,  of  cruelty  or  of  innocent 
blood  spilt,  disturbed   his   composure.     If   he   made 


mistakes,  it  was  to  pardon  and  save  the  life  of  some 
youthful  soldier,  condemned  to  be  shot  for  sleeping 
on  his  post. 

I  first  met  Mr.  Lincoln  in  1836,  more  than  seventy 
years  ago.  He  was  then  residing  at  New  Salem,  where 
he  was  deputy  surveyor  under  Thomas  Neale  and  post- 
master of  the  village.  He  had  served  one  term  in  the 
legislature  and  was  a  candidate  for  re-election  at  the 
coming  August  election. 

At  that  time  there  was  something  about  this  un- 
gainly and  poorly  clothed  young  man  that  foretold  to 
an  observing  man  a  bright  future  in  public  and  politi- 
cal life. 

After  dinner  at  the  Rutledge  tavern,  when  driving 
on  the  road  to  Huron,  where  my  father  and  Mr.  N. 
W.  Edwards  (afterwards  a  brother-in-law  of  Mr.  Lin- 
coln) had  a  store;  I  remember  as  distinctly  as  if  it 
occurred  only  yesterday,  my  father  said  to  Mr.  Ed- 
wards: "Edwards,  that  young  man  Lincoln  will  some 
day  be  Governor  of  Illinois."  I,  only  a  lad  ten  years 
of  age,  thought  my  father  was  daft.  I  had  seen  at 
Springfield  two  Governors  of  Illinois,  Ninian  Edwards 
of  Belleville  and  Joseph  Duncan  of  Jacksonville. 
They  often  came  to  our  city,  both  well  dressed.  Each 
came  in  his  carriage,  with  fine  horses  and  colored 
drivers.  Mr.  Lincoln,  up  to  this  time,  had  only  been  a 
captain  of  volunteers  in  the  Black  Hawk  Indian  War,^ 
and  one  term  a  member  of  the  legislature.  He  did 
not  then  look  to  me  like  a  prospective  Governor,  when 
I  had  in  my  mind's  eye  those  stately  gentlemen,  Ed- 
wards and  Duncan.  But  it  seems  that  my  father's 
foresight  was  much  better  than  his  son's  vision,  for 


in  a  little  over  twenty  years  this  poorly  clad  and  un- 
known young  man  was  the  imperial  ruler  of  a  country 
of  fifty  million  people,  commanding  an  army  of  a 
million  men — a  more  effective  and  potential  army 
than  Caesar  or  Napoleon  ever  marshaled  in  battle  array. 

Of  Mr.  Lincoln's  birth  and  ancestry  little  need  be 
said — a  subject  about  which  he  was  never  communi- 
cative. His  early  days  in  Hardin  county  were  days 
of  poverty  and  obscurity ;  pathetic  years  of  childhood, 
which  he  never  cared  to  recall  and  linger  over  as  a 
pleasant  memory.  Doubtless  from  all  accounts,  that 
are  laid  before  us,  during  his  first  seven  years  of  life 
in  the  log  cabin  on  Nolan's  creek,  he  was  poorly  clad 
and  scantily  fed.  After  his  father  moved  to  Spencer 
county,  Indiana,  he  lived  in  a  little  half -faced  camp 
for  one  year;  the  second  year  a  log  cabin  took  the 
place  of  the  camp,  but  it  was  without  window,  door 
or  floor  for  some  time. 

Food  was  abundant,  game  plenty;  deer,  bear,  wild 
turkey,  ducks,  fish  in  every  stream,  wild  fruits  of 
many  kinds  in  the  summer  months,  and  these  fruits 
were  dried  for  winter  use,  potatoes  about  the  only 
vegetable  raised  and  corn  dodger  the  daily  bread  of 
the  Lincoln  household.  The  supply  of  groceries  and 
cooking  utensils  were  limited.  His  mother  died  in 
1818,  of  the  i)revailing  disease  of  that  country,  known 
as  the  milk-sick. 

In  1819,  Lincoln's  father  went  back  to  Kentucky, 
and  returned  with  a  second  wife,  in  the  person  of 
widow  Johnson;  with  her  came  three  children.  She 
was  a  woman  of  gentleness,  thrift  and  energy,     The 


new  wife  at  once  made  the  cabin  homelike,  she  taught 
the  children  habits  of  of  cleanliness  and  comfort. 

The  boy  became  very  fond  of  nis  new  mother  and 
remained  so  all  of  the  years  of  his  life.  After  he 
was  elected  President  and  before  leaving  home  to  be 
sworn  into  office,  he  paid  his  mother  a  last  farewell 
visit;  in  speaking  of  her  he  always  called  her  his  "an- 
gel mother."  For  ten  years  after  his  father's  second 
marriage  he  lived  at  home,  laboring  on  the  farm,  ex- 
cept when  his  father  hired  him  out  to  his  neighbors 
to  hoe  corn,  pull  fodder,  harvest  grain,  cut  wood  and 
make  rails. 

During  these  years  he  read  more  or  less,  eagerly; 
reading  whatever  books  he  could  get  possession  of. 
He  was  hungry  for  books  and  read  intently  all  his 
spare  time,  having  no  taste  or  inclination  for  hunting 
wild  game. 

In  1830,  his  restless  father  again  moved,  this  time 
to  Illinois  and  settled  in  Sangamon  county.  Here 
they  built  a  log  cabin  and  made  rails  sufficient  to 
fence  ten  acres  of  land. 

This  was  the  last  work  he  did  for  his  father.  Hav- 
ing now  arrived  at  his  majority,  he  left  home  and 
started  out  in  the  world  to  shift  for  himself. 

During  the  coming  winter,  he  and  his  step-brother 
John  Johnson  and  his  cousin  John  Hanks,  hired  out 
to  a  trader,  Denton  Offutt,  to  take  and  pilot  a  flat- 
boat  down  the  Mississippi  river  to  New  Orleans 
loaded  with  country  produce,  which  Offut  would 
gather  up — produce  needed  and  marketable  in  the 
Creole  city  of  the  south,  butter,  lard,  eggs,  bacon, 
pickled  pork,  etc. 


Failing  to  purchase  a  suitable  boat,  Lincoln  and 
his  companions  built  one  at  Sangamontown,  six  miles 
northwest  of  this  city.  In  floating  down  the  Sanga- 
mon river,  the  boat  stuck  on  the  dam  built  for  Rut- 
ledge's  mill,  just  opposite  the  village  of  New  Salem, 
and  for  nearly  a  day  it  hung  bow  in  the  air,  stern  in 
the  water — shipwreck  seemed  almost  certain.  The 
villagers  of  Salem  turned  out  in  a  body  to  see  what 
the  strangers  would  do  to  save  their  boat ;  while  the 
sight-seers  suggested  and  advised,  a  tall  big  fellow  of 
the  crew,  worked  out  a  plan  of  relief  and  succeeded 
in  tilting  his  craft  over  the  dam  and  proceeded  on  his 
trip  down  the  river.  This  was  Lincoln's  second  trip 
to  New  Orleans.  There  he  witnessed  a  public  sale 
of  slave  negroes.  A  young  mulatto  female  was 
placed  on  the  block;  as  the  auctioneer  was  calling 
for  the  highest  bidder,  man  after  man  walked 
around  the  block,  handling  the  girl,  as  you  would  feel 
the  points  and  parts  of  a  horse;  Lincoln  turned  and 
walked  away,  and  expressed  his  hatred  of  slavery,  say- 
ing to  his  step-brother,  "if  I  ever  get  a  chance  to  hit 
the  system  of  slavery.  I  will  hit  it  damned  hard." 
He  kept  his  word — the  proclamation  of  Emancipa- 
tion. 

There  was  something  about  the  people  and  village 
of  Salem  which  fascinated  Lincoln.  On  his  return 
from  the  south  after  a  brief  visit  to  his  old  home,  he 
came  to  Salem,  settled  there  and  spent  the  next  seven 
years  of  his  early  and  eventful  life.  Here  he  lived 
and  loved,  worked  and  sported,  laughed  and  joked, 
grew  merry  and  serious,  as  the  varied  moods  im- 
pressed his  mental  disposition.     Here  he  made  fast 


friends  and  commenced  his  wonderful  political  career. 
Here  he,  as  clerk  of  the  election  board  performed  his 
first  official  act. 

Here  he  became  acquainted  with  Green  and  Arm- 
strong, Kelso  and  Duncan,  Alley  and  Carmer,  Hern- 
don  and  Radford,  Hill  and  McNamara,  Rutledge  and 
Berry  and  many  other  pioneers  of  the  vicinity. 

New  Salem  soon  became  to  him,  what  Venice  was 
to  Byron: 

"A  fairy  city  of  the  heart, 

Of  joy  the  sojourn,  and  of  wealth  the  mart." 

There  were  to  be  found  the  best  specimens  of  the 
pioneer  settler;  hardy,  industrious,  kind  and  courage- 
ous men  and  women.  As  a  physician  of  early  days,  I 
knew  and  loved  them  intimately  and  well.  I  knew 
their  foibles  which  were  superficial,  and  their  virtues 
which  were  innate  and  loveable. 

Mr,  Lincoln's  first  permanent  employment  was  as  a 
clerk  in  the  store  of  Offutt,  where  he  continued  until 
the  spring  of  1832,  when  the  Indian  war  was  opened, 
by  the  return  of  Chief  Black  Hawk  and  his  band  to 
re-occupy  their  old  homes  in  the  Rock- river  country. 

The  Governor  calling  for  soldiers,  Lincoln  volun- 
teered and  was  elected  captain  of  his  company. 

After  the  defeat  of  Black  Hawk  at  the  battle  of  Bad 
Axe  and  the  close  of  the  war,  he  returned  home,  and 
in  partnership  with  Berry  bought  a  store  and  became 
a  merchant  in  general  country  trade.  He  soon  dis- 
covered he  was  not  a  success  as  "a  merchant,  sold  out 
his  stock  of  goods  and  was  appointed  postmaster  by 
President  VanBuren.  To  help  out  a  living,  he  became 
a  deputy  surveyor  and  was  twice  elected  a  member  of 


the  Legislature;  also  read  law  and  appeared  before 
justices  of  the  peace  in  legal  suits.  Was  licensed  to 
practice  law. 

In  the  spring  of  1837  he  moved  to  Springfield,  com- 
menced his  enlarged  life  as  a  lawyer,  and  entered  into 
partnership  with  Major  John  T.  Stuart.  Here  he  had 
to  meet  and  contend  at  the  bar  with  the  brightest  and 
ablest  lawyers  of  the  state,  such  as  Logan,  Baker, 
Trumbull,  Hardin,  Purple  and  Douglas.  And  it  is 
not  going  too  far  to  say  that  he  held  his  own  before 
judge  and  jury  with  the  best  legal  talent  of  the  state. 

To  show  his  care  of  trust  money,  I  would  state  that 
after  he  had  moved  to  our  city,  Mr.  James  Brown,  the 
traveling  postoffice  agent,  came  into  Kobert  Irwin's 
store  and  inquired  where  he  could  find  Mr.  Lincoln, 
former  postmaster  at  New  Salem,  that  he  wished  to 
collect  the  money  of  the  United  States  still  in  his 
possession.  William  Butler  being  present  said,  "Mr. 
Brown,  I  will  see  Mr.  Lincoln  at  my  house  at  dinner; 
he  will  call  on  you  at  the  hotel  and  pay  you."  At 
dinner  Mr.  Butler  told  him  what  Mr.  Brown's  business 
was.  Thinking  Mr.  Lincoln  might  not  have  the 
money  to  settle  his  postofiice  collections,  Butler  said: 
'•I  will  let  you  have  the  money  to  settle  up  your  post- 
office  account."  Lincoln  replied,  "I  thank  you  very 
much,  but  I  have  all  the  money  in  my  trunk  which 
belongs  to  the  government."  The  identical  silver, 
quarters  and  twelve  and  a  half  cent  pieces  were  safely 
put  away  in  an  old  sock  in  his  trunk,  ready  any  day 
for  immediate  settlement  of  his  official  account.  If 
every  man  handling  government  money  was  as  care- 
ful, there  would  be  no  defalcations. 

Mrs.  Dallman,  wife  of  es-Alderman  Dallman.  loves 

10 


to  tell  how  kind  both  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Lincoln  were  to 
her  years  ago  when  she  lived  in  her  small  home  just 
across  the  street  from  them.  It  was  when  little  Thomas 
Lincoln  was  a  nursing  child;  she  was  very  sick,  had 
no  help  and  an  infant  girl  to  care  for.  She  says  Mrs. 
Lincoln  often  nursed  her  little  child,  and  Mr.  Lincoln 
rocked  the  cradle  until  her  child  was  happily  asleep. 

There  was  not  a  particle  of  avarice  in  our  subject's 
mental  make-up.  Greediness  of  wealth  was  absolutely 
foreign  to  his  nature.  He  wanted  money  sufficient  to 
pay  ordinary  living  expenses  of  his  household,  but  he 
cared  not  for  gold  just  to  possess  and  handle. 

To  illustrate  this  statement  1  will  relate  a  little  story 
of  our  college  society  of  Illinois  College  and  his  con- 
nection with  said  society.  It  was  customary  prior  to 
the  civil  war,  for  the  literary  society  to  give  a  series 
of  lectures,  the  profits  from  which  were  expended  to 
purchase  books  for  the  library.  Mr.  Lincoln  was  en- 
gaged to  deliver  one  of  the  lectures.  After  the  lecture 
was  over  and  the  audience  left,  he  recognized  the  fact 
that  the  attendance  was  not  large  and  therefore  the 
receipts  at  the  door  must  be  limited.  Mr.  Lincoln 
with  a  kind  smile  said  to  the  president  of  the  society, 
"I  have  not  made  much  money  for  you  tonight."  In 
reply  the  financial  officer  said:  "When  we  pay  for 
rent  of  the  hall,  music  and  advertising,  and  your  com- 
pensation, there  will  not  be  much  left  to  buy  books 
for  the  library."  "Well,  boys,  be  hopeful,  pay  me  my 
railroad  fare  and  fifty  cents  for  my  supper  at  the  hotel 
and  we  are  square."  That  was  our  subject's  kindness 
and  liberality  all  over;  yet  at  that  day  he  was  not 
burdened  with  cash  and  could  have  found  good  use 

11 


for  a  few  extra  dollars.     He  thought  the  poor  society 
needed  the  money  more  than  he  did. 

Mr.  Lincoln,  after  his  arrival  in  our  city,  boarded 
at  the  home  of  Mr.  Butler,  the  second  house  west  of 
my  father's  home.  I  often  observed  him  as  he  passed 
to  and  fro  from  his  meals  to  his  office.  He  usually 
walked  alone,  his  head  inclined  as  if  he  was  absorbed 
in  deep  thought,  unmindful  of  surrounding  objects 
and  persons.  Though  he  had  his  wonderful  gift  of 
humor,  I  venture  to  assert  that  in  the  long  run  of 
years  life  was  to  him  serious  and  earnest. 

He  once  said  to  Joshua  Speed,  his  close  friend: 
■'Speed,  when  I  am  dead,  I  wish  my  friends  to  remem- 
ber that  I  always  pluck  a  thorn  and  plant  a  rose  when 
in  my  power."  He  roomed  with  Speed  over  his  store 
on  the  west  side  of  the  public  square. 

If  asked  what  in  my  opinion,  were  the  marked  quali- 
ties of  his  mental  organization,orinother  words,  what 
were  the  salient  traits  of  his  character,  I  would  reply, 
his  kindness  and  patience,  integrity,  humor,  patriotism 
and  ambition,  and  his  moral  and  physical  courage. 

His  integrity  is  proved  by  all  his  acts,  private,  pub- 
lic and  official.  He  never  betrayed  a  cause  or  party, 
friend  or  the  people.  His  kindness  and  humanity 
were  innate,  he  was  always  considerate  of  man,  beast 
or  bird.  He  was  ambitious,  seeking  position,  ex- 
pecting to  benefit  his  country. 

His  moral  courage  was  potent  and  sublime,  as  often 
shown  in  the  Legislature  of  Illinois,  Congress  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  his  wise  and  efficient  administra- 
tion of  the  Federal  Government,  in  the  most  critical 
days  of  the  civil  war. 


12 


His  love  of  liberty,  justice  and  right  was  visible  and 
manifest  to  all,  in  every  purpose  and  act  during  his 
entire  life.  During  the  long  and  dreary  days  of  the 
war,  his  patience  and  kindly  heart,  won  the  admira- 
tion of  all  his  countrymen.  By  his  decision  of  char- 
acter and  avowal  of  his  convictions  of  a  slaveholder's 
right  to  hold  a  slave  in  the  territories  of  the  Union, 
he  lost  a  senatorial  race  in  1858,  only  to  win  the 
Presidency  in  1860. 

I  venture  to  say  that  no  man  was  less  elated  by 
prosperity,  or  dejDressed  by  adversity.  He  was  so 
mentally  balanced,  that  he  could  calmly  share  the 
triumph  or  endure  defeat. 

Probably,  it  is  not  going  too  far,  when  I  state  my 
opinion  that  the  law  was  not  his  first  love;  that  he 
adopted  the  profession  of  law,  as  a  means  of  a  liveli- 
hood, and  yet  more  likely  he  adopted  the  law  as  the 
most  direct  road  to  increase  his  prospects  for  pro- 

r  motion  in  his  political  career.     I  think  he  always  felt 

much  more  interested  in,  and  loved  to  discuss  political 

^  and  public  issues  and  affairs  of  state,  than  he  did  pure 

legal  suits  about  business  and  dollars,  between  man 
and  man. 

He  was  anti-slavery  in  heart  and  head,  had  intense 
feelings  on  this  question,  and  the  grievous  wrong  of 
slavery  aroused  his  kind  nature,  to  earnest  opposition 
to  its  spread  and  extension  into  new  territory.  He 
could  consent  to  abide  its  existence  in  the  States, 
where  the  constitution  of  the  States  protected  the  sys- 
tem, but  from  his  early  manhood,  like  Henry  Clay,  he 
hoped  for  its  ultimate  extinction,  either  by  coloniza- 

13 


tion  to  Africa,  or  by  money  compensation  to  the  slave- 
holder. 

Members  of  the  Springfield  bar,  the  Judges  of  our 
State  courts  and  United  States  courts,  all  coincide  in 
the  opinion,  that  Mr.  Lincoln  was  a  very  able  and  per- 
siiasive  lawyer  before  a  jury  when  he  was  on  the  right 
side  of  a  case,  and  a  very  poor  lawyer  when  his  client 
was  in  the  wrong. 

There  was  in  him  that  innate  sense  of  justice  which 
disabled  him  when  on  the  wrong  side.  He  could  not 
successfully  attempt  to  make  black  white. 

He  has  been  known  to  refuse  his  legal  service,  when 
satisfied  that  his  applicant  had  the  wrong  side  of  the 
case. 

Mr.  Lincoln's  language  and  style  was  Anglo-Saxon, 
he  was  not  a  classical  scholar,  his  words  were  English 
pure  and  clear.  He  had  great  power  of  condensation, 
used  no  unnecessary  words.  The  common  people 
understood  his  arguments. 

He  summed  up  the  doctrine  of  squatter  sovereignty 
advocated  by  Douglas  in  the  Kansas-Nebraska  issue, 
in  these  few  words  "that  if  a  man  choose  to  enslave 
another,  no  third  man  shall  be  allowed  to  object." 

You  may  read  many  different  lives  of  him,  but  you 
will  find  little  said  of  him  as  a  lawyer. 

His  enduring  fame  belongs  to  him,  as  an  anti- 
slavery  debater,  a  pure-minded  and  far-sighted  state- 
man,  a  ruler  of  men.  The  wonderful  contrast  in  his 
first  and  last  years,  best  illustrates  the  possibilities  of 
American  citizenship.  The  poor  boy  who  could  scar- 
cely reach  the  lowest  round  of  the  ladder,  as  am  an  in 

14 


only  middle  life,  stood  upon  the  top  most  round,  then 
by  his  tragic  death,  passed  up  to  the  sky. 

Whenever  Mrs.  Hill  of  New  Salem  heard  any  re- 
marks about  Lincoln  and  Ann  Rutledge,  she  would 
tell  of  her  recollections  of  a  quilting  bee  at  Salem. 
Lincoln  was  sitting  next  to  Ann,  as  the  girl  was  in- 
dustriously using  her  needle,  Abraham  was  softly 
whispering  in  her  ear,  and  Mrs.  Hill  was  wont  to  say, 
that  she  noticed  the  rose  color  flushed  in  the  cheek  of 
Ann — her  heart  throbbed  quicker  and  her  soul  thrilled 
with  a  joy  as  old  as  the  world  itself. 

Upon  the  same  subject,  I  will  relate  what  Isaac 
Cogdal  tells  of  his  interview  with  Lincoln.  In  De- 
cember, after  his  election  as  president,  Cogdal  called 
to  see  him.  He  requested  his  old  friend  from  Salem 
to  wait  until  his  callers  from  a  distance  went  to  their 
hotels,  so  that  he  might  inquire  about  his  old  friends 
in  Menard  county.  All  visitors  having  retired,  they 
both  drew  their  chairs  close  to  the  fire.  There  in  the 
quiet  twilight  Lincoln  inquired  after  his  old  Salem 
friends,  their  sons  and  daughters,  when  and  whom 
they  had  married  and  how  they  had  prospered.  When 
he  had  told  Lincoln  all,  he  said,  "Mr.  Lincoln,  I 
would  like  to  ask  you  one  question."  He  promptly 
replied,  "Well,  Isaac,  if  it  is  a  fair  question,  I  will 
answer  it."  "What  is  the  truth  about  you  and  Ann 
Rutledge?"  "Isaac,  I  dearly  loved  the  girl,  and  I 
never  to  this  day  hear  the  name  Rutledge  called  with- 
out fond  memories  of  those  long  past  days." 

He  was  modest,  rather  retiring  than  pushing  him- 
self forward  in  society,  never  sought  to  be  conspicuous. 

Even  after  his  great  debate  with  Douglas  and  after 

15 


be  had  been  nominated  for  president  by  a  great  party, 
he  was  disinclined  to  notoriety.  When  Mr.  Scripps  of 
the  Chicago  Tribune  came  to  Springfield  to  visit  him 
and  gather  from  him  the  materials  for  a  campaign 
biography,  he  hesitated  whether  to  aid  the  publica- 
tion. He  said  to  Mr.  Scripps,  "there  is  no  romance, 
nothing  heroic  in  my  early  life,  the  story  of  my  life 
can  be  condensed  into  one  line,  and  that  line  you  can 
find  in  Gray's  Elegy."  "The  short  and  simple  annals 
of  the  poor."  "This  is  all  you  or  any  one  can  make 
out  of  me  or  my  early  life."  What  pathos — recalling 
early  days  of  childhood — years  of  penury  and  want ! 

I  witnessed  the  inauguration  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  on  the 
5th  of  March  1861 .  The  first  three  days  of  March 
were  quite  warm.  Sunday  March  3rd  was  a  delightful 
spring  day,  the  soft  mild  breeze  from  the  south,  which 
came  up  to  Washington  city  to  mark  the  quiet  Sab- 
bath as  the  last  day  of  James  Buchanan  in  the  White 
House  and  his  loosening  hold  on  the  reins  of  the  Fed- 
eral Union,  was  springlike  and  filled  with  fragrance 
from  the  land  of  the  orange  and  magnolia. 

After  a  crimson  sunset,  the  wind  seemed  to  rise 
and  came  in  fitful  gusts,  quick  and  sharp  as  the  even- 
ing advanced;  during  the  evening  of  Sunday,  the  wind 
shifted  to  the  west,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  4th  the 
sky  was  over  cast  with  clouds,  and  the  wind  came  from 
the  north.  By  ten  o'clock  the  temperature  had  fallen 
BO  degrees,  but  notwithstanding  the  frosty,  biting  air, 
Pennsylvania  avenue  was  crowded  with  a  mass  of 
moving  humanity.  The  liberty  loving  people  had 
come  from  New  England,  from  the  great  central  states, 

16 


from  the  far  ofp  west,  from  the  valley  of  the  Ohio  and 
Mississippi. 

They  had  come  100,000  strong,  not  to  witness  the 
pomp  and  ceremony  of  the  crowning  of  a  king,  but 
the  simplicity  of  the  inauguration  of  the  chosen  ruler 
of  a  free  republic. 

In  the  presence  of  the  assembled  citizens,  Abraham 
Lincoln,  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  Edward  Baker 
on  either  side,  with  head  bare  and  hand  uplifted,  was 
sworn  to  support,  maintain  and  defend  the  constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States. 

So  long  as  liberty  remains;  so  long  as  Christianity 
and  civilization  are  the  legacy  of  the  race,  will  history 
record  how  faithfully  that  sacred  vow  was  fulfilled. 

That  cold  bleak  day  fitly  illustrated,  the  stormy 
and  tempestuous  path  which  he  was  compelled  to 
to  walk,  that  uneven,  perilous  road,  he  trod  cautiously, 
warily,  yet  with  calmness  and  fortitude,  determined  to 
preserve  the  union  of  the  states.  The  dark  and  peril- 
ous days  of  storm  and  battle  were  foreshadowed  in  the 
forbidding  weather  of  that  inauguration  day.  The 
very  air  was  portentous.  The  rising  murmurs  of  dis- 
content, came  up  angrily  on  every  breeze  wafted 
from  Virginia,  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas.  These 
murmurings  and  threatenings,  were  the  prelude  to  the 
crimson  tempest  through  which  Lincoln  finally  passed 
in  triumph,  but  at  what  a  cost  of  men  and  treasure! 

Not  until  Grant  had  overwhelmed  the  south  with  a 
million  of  armed  men;  not  until  the  tramp,  tramp  of 
Sherman's  army  had  been  heard  and  felt  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  Confederacy. 

Those  days  have  gone,  never  to  return. 

17 


The  competition  of  the  sections  will  be  in  the  future, 
in  the  line  of  education,  the  industries  and  achieve- 
ments in  the  arts  of  peace,  which  will  make  the 
republic  of  Washington  foremost  of  the  nations  of  the 
earth  as  a  great,  free,  enlightened  and  prosperous 
country. 

Probably,  each  of  the  ladies  here  assembled,  can 
testify  for  themselves  and  the  world  about  them,  how 
they  enjoy  the  little  stories  relating  to  the  domestic 
affairs  of  any  family  of  j)rominence.  The  concerns  of 
the  Lincoln  household  are  no  exception.  Eight  here 
let  me  say  that  much  of  fiction  has  been  interwoven 
by  historians  and  papers  in  tracing  and  relating  little 
incidents  which  are  reported  to  have  occurred  in  that 
home. 

I  am  not  prepared  to  say  that  that  home  was  an 
ideal  home,  but  I  do  say,  without  hesitation,  that  it 
was  a  happy  home. 

The  husband  was  kind  and  considerate ;  the  wife 
bright,  impulsive,  educated,  cultured,  industrious  and 
loveable,  a  good  wife  and  fond  mother. 

This  much  I  desire  to  say,  on  his  birthday,  in  the 
Lincoln  home,  where  many  of  us,  his  and  her  life-long 
friends  have  partaken  of  their  hospitality,  and  know 
whereof  we  speak. 

Lincoln  was  a  man  of  peace;  he  never  sought  a  con- 
troversy or  quarrel;  he  never  retreated  under  fire. 

As  a  whig  and  as  a  republican,  he  did  not  always 
agree  with  all  the  policies  of  his  party,  and  he  did 
submit  often  to  some  measures  which  he  did  not  ap- 
prove. But  on  any  vital  question,  where  a  principle 
was  involved,  the  question  of  slavery  and  the  civil 

18 


rights  of  man,  he  was  immovable,  constant  and  stead- 
fast. 

His  religions  views  and  opinions  have  been  dis. 
cussed  again  and  again.  I  believe  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  by  nature  a  deeply  religious  man.  But  I  have 
seen  no  evidence  that  he  ever  accepted  the  formulated 
creed  of  any  sect  or  denomination.  I  should  say  that 
all  churches  had  his  respect  and  good  wishes. 

What  would  have  been  the  history  of  reconstruc- 
tion, had  Mr.  Lincoln  survived  to  serve  through  his 
second  term  we  cannot  tell;  but  it  has  often  occurred 
to  me  that  the  country,  and  especially  the  republican 
party,  would  have  escaped  much  of  the  humiliation 
and  disgrace  heaped  uj)on  it  by  the  conduct  and  polit- 
ical' management  of  the  northern  carpet-baggers,  who, 
through  the  support  of  the  ignorant  blacks  of  the 
south,  despoiled  and  dominated  the  political  control 
of  the  offices,  state  an.d  federal,  of  many  southern 
states.  The  kind  and  firm  hand  of  Lincoln  'would 
never  have  permitted  this  blot  of  carpet-baggism  upon 
the  fair  fame  of  our  reconstruction  of  the  states. 

In  the  heart  of  that  noblest  of  men  there  was  no 
hatred  of  any  man  or  section  of  his  country;  there 
dwelt  sweet  peace  and  sublime  humanity. 

The  restoration  of  the  Union  he  lived  for  and  died 
for.  In  the  love  and  reverence  of  his  countrymen 
through  all  coming  time,  he  stands  side  by  side  with 
George  Washington. 

Much  of  interest  could  be  related  of  those  long  and 
dreary  years  of  the  rebellion — of  Lincoln's  masterly 
ability,  tact  and  wariness  as  a  ruler  of  men,  in  hold- 
ing in  harmony  for  the  prosecution  of  war  and  the 

19 


union  of  the  States,  many  diverse  elements  which 
were  to  be  found  in  eastern,  western  and  border 
states,  but  his  conduct  and  management  of  affairs, 
civil  and  military,  has  been  told  and  retold  and  is 
known  to  all. 

The  closing  scene  of  his  life  is  too  cruel  to  dwell 
upon.  With  the  surrender  of  Lee  at  Appomattox, 
just  as  a  benign  peace  smiled  upon  a  reunited  country 
and  alluring  prospects  of  prosperity,  tranquility  and 
contentment  were  spread  out  before  his  delighted 
vision,  and  his  evening  of  life  promised  to  be  blest 
with  the  love  and  reverence  of  a  grateful  people — 
darkness  and  death  came.  In  an  instant,  his  brain 
was  paralyzed  by  the  bullet  of  the  assassin;  uncon- 
scious he  passed  from  life  to  death;  thus  ful- 
filling, fancy,  vision  or  foreboding,  which  came 
to  him  years  before.  In  the  deepning  twilight, 
when  reclining  for  repose,  on  his  couch  in  his  own 
home,  "he  was  musing  in  silence  and  sadness  on  the 
past,  present  and  future,  he  beheld  on  the  mirror  of 
of  his  room  two  contrasting  views  of  his  own  features, 
one  in  the  vigor  of  health,  one  wearing  the  paleness 
of  death.  This  vision  disturbed  him — he  spoke  to 
his  wife  about  it,  and  seemed  to  regard  it  as  an  ill 
omen,  which  portended  and  forshadowed  misfortune. 
Probably  in  a  brief  time  this  depressing  incident 
vanished  from  his  mind.  Strange  and  mysterious  are 
the  ways  of  Providence.  We  can  but  submit  to  the 
supreme  will  of  that  infinite  intelligence,  which  made 
and  governs  the  universe. 

Illinois  called  for  her  dead  son;  silently,  yet  in  tri- 
umph the  body  of  Lincoln  was  borne  through  cities 

20 


and  States,  all  draped  in  emblems  of  woe.  His  pallid 
face,  worn  with  deep  lines  of  care  and  anxiety,  was 
looked  upon  by  tens  of  thousands. 

Home  was  reached.  The  casket  was  placed  in  the 
great  Hall  of  the  Capitol,  so  often  the  silent  witness 
of  his  intellectual  combats  and  triumphs. 

Men,  women  and  children  came  from  all  the  sur- 
rounding country.  The  old  and  young  bowed  in  sor- 
row and  anguish,  by  day  and  by  night  pressed  close 
around  that  coffin  and  gazed  for  the  last  time  upon 
the  well  marked  and  familiar  features  of  that  kind 
face.  That  heart  which  had  always  throbbed  "in 
charity  for  all.  and  malice  to  none,"  was  now  stilled 
in  death. 

There  is  little  doubt  as  to  the  place,  which  will  be 
assigned  the  war  President,  in  the  final  judgment  of 
mankind.  Let  us  believe,  nor  is  the  belief  in  vain, 
that  the  pitiless  and  impartial  historian,  when  he  has 
measured  and  weighed  and  analyzed,  the  great  his- 
toric characters  of  nations,  will  deliberately  pro- 
nounce that  among  the  marked  rulers  of  men,  he  was 
not  surpassed  by  any  statesman  of  the  modern  world. 

All  that  is  physical  and  mortal,  now  reposes  in 
quiet  Oak  Ridge,  in  that  crypt  of  Fame,  beneath 
stately  monument  of  granite,  erected  by  a  grateful 
state. 

The  thought,  intellect  and  spiritual,  of  that  heart 
and  soul  survives  in  the  unknown  beyond,  and  lives 
on  with  the  ages. 

In  the  world's  pantheon  of  heroes  and  martyrs,  there 
will  be  graven  by  a  cunning  hand  the  name  Abraham 
Lincoln. 


21 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 

973  7L63B2J33L  C001 

LINCOLN'S  BIRTHDAY,  1907.  SPRINGFIELD 


3  0112  031794594 


